Again, Appeal Court Upholds Wada's Election

The Kogi State
Governor, Ibrahim Wada, Wednesday won another major victory as the Court of
Appeal in Abuja, dismissed an appeal filed by the Congress for Progressive
Change (CPC) governorship candidate, James Ocholi (SAN), challenging his
election.

The court in a
unanimous judgment also dismissed a similar appeal filed by the All Nigeria
Peoples Party (ANPP).

In the judgment
delivered by Justice I.T.A. George-Mbama, the court held that the issues raised
in the two appeals were electoral matters that should have been taken to the
electoral tribunal for adjudication.

The court held that
the High Court was right in dismissing the suit.

It sub consequently upheld the decision of the trial court.
But before dismissing the case, Justice George-Mbama reprimanded the two
appellants for filing two separate appeals even though they jointly filed the
case as plaintiffs before the high court.

He said lawyers and
parties should avoid over burden the court by filing separate appeals when they
could have filed only one appeal.

The court said:
"The second appeal is similar to the one earlier decided. The parties are
the same. At the lower court they were together. They have similar interest.
They still have the same interest even in the appeal. It is therefore surprising
to see them file different appeals. This is an unwholesome practice as it had
overburdened the court.

"The mere fact
that a federal agency is a party does not make it a case for a federal high
court. It is the issue in dispute and the law that determine jurisdiction,"
he added.

Justice George-Mbama
said instead of filing their petitions before the tribunal, they waited for
Wada to be sworn in and then went to the Federal High Court to challenge his
election.

The court noted that
the two appeals were challenging the election of Wada and his qualification to
contest the governorship election in the state.

This, the court said,
could only be done at the election tribunal and not the Federal High Court.

He cited sections 285
(2) of the constitution, which provides that an election can only be quashed by
an election tribunal.

He also cited Section
138 of Electoral Act, which stated the ground upon which an election could be
questioned.

He said: "Where a
court lacks the competence to determine a matter, an appellate court will
uphold the decision of the high court declining jurisdiction.

"We hold that the
trial court was right in holding that it lacked jurisdiction."

The court had earlier
upheld Wada's election in an appeal filed by Jilbrin Isah, a member of the same
party with Wada, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).